Ends and Beginnings
by Leon L. Lawliet
Summary: A story set after Red and Gold leave for Mt. Silver.  Where the told story ends, the untold story begins.


**A/N: Thank you to everyone who read/faved/reviewed my other stories, I promise to start replying. I'm so lazy... Anyway, I heard this song and this story immediately came to mind. Now that I think about it, it could happen... Anyway, I'm rambling. Enjoy. Oh, wait...**

**Disclaimer: Song is "End of This" by Scratching the Itch. I don't own it or Pokémon. Whee. Story like this, _lyrics like this_.**

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"Haa…"

Blue stared lazily at the sky. The sun was shining, there were few clouds, and the breeze provided just the right balance. In short, it was a perfect day. Perfectly boring, that is. She sat up from her spot on the roof of the lab and spied Crystal crossing below. The girl stopped and looked up at her.

"You know, if you're that bored, you could help us," she called.

"Nobody gets that bored," Blue shot back with a smirk.

Crystal sighed and set down the box she'd been holding. "Can't you pester Green instead or something? You haven't done anything since they left."

"You mean that guy?" Blue asked, pointing to the spiky-haired boy across the "yard" of the lab. "He's no fun at all. Too serious…" She sighed and reclined again. True enough, Green had spent most of his time either researching who-knows-what or training with Silver. Some of the battles got so intense that Professor Oak had to rush out and stop them before something leveled his workplace.

"Red and Gold are still at Mt. Silver then?"

"Yeah. Occasionally Aerodactyl brings letters and stuff, but that's about it…"

"But you write back, don't you?" Crystal inquired.

Blue smiled at her again. "I'm losing my touch if you can see through me that easily."

Crystal just stared back. "I didn't know it was a secret."

Blue sighed again and reclined back onto the roof. Crystal stared at her for a few more seconds, then shrugged and resumed her previous task. Somewhere in the distance, both could hear another battle gaining tempo and proximity. On cue, Oak tore off through the field to quell it.

_Far away from you tonight  
Far away from love  
Wondering where you are tonight  
Who you're thinking of  
Is it hard to remember  
All the time we've spent  
Keeping memories in a box  
Of letters that you've sent_

"Okay, that's enough for today," Red declared. Everyone on his team looked ready to collapse. Across the peak, Gold and his team were equally exhausted. He hadn't taken the boy seriously at first, but both of them had become notably stronger since arriving.

"Oh come on, we're good for another six hours," Gold replied in a partial drawl. "Seriously, though, when's dinner?"

"Right…about…now," Red answered as Aerodactyl landed beside him with the usual load of supplies. Mt. Silver was good for training, but not much else; they had to fly in food every so often. Within five seconds, Gold had torn into the package and started passing out food to everyone. All the Pokémon ate warily, eyeing each other between bites. After the Snorlax incident the first time, tension ran a little high on occasion during meals.

Explotaro started a fire for the two trainers as they sat down to their own dinners. The air was filled with crunching and munching sounds for a few minutes, followed by a few content sighs and a loud belch from Gold.

Red glared at him. "Do you have to do that?"

"That means it was good," Gold replied. "Don't start acting like Crys on me now."

"Whatever. How long are we going to be here, anyway?"

"Well…" he paused in thought. "If Green and Silver can destroy the lab, then we should at least be able to flatten this mountain in one blow."

Red stared crookedly at him. "Sometimes I wonder if you take anything seriously."

"Hey, if you're gonna dream, dream big, right?" Gold answered with a grin. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot…" He pulled the remnants of the package over and rummaged through it for a minute before producing a blue envelope and handing it to Red. "Letter from your girlfriend."

Red blushed slightly as he took the letter. "And what makes you think that?"

Gold pointed to Red's face. "That, and you still haven't said she's not." He snickered at the spreading flush on his senior's face. "I'll clean up, let me know when you come back down." He saluted overenthusiastically and proceeded to pick up the empty dishes. Red made sure he got a fair distance between them before opening the envelope.

_Hold on  
My love  
Hold on till the end of this  
Hold on  
My love  
Hold on till the end of this  
Hold on_

Back home in Pallet, Green and Silver had finally managed to shatter a few windows with shockwaves. After Oak had chewed them out thoroughly, he made the pair replace what they had broken with storm glass and restricted their training to the Seafoam Islands. "I don't think Articuno would mind cooling their heads a little," he'd said.

That left the girls to themselves most of the time. Nobody knew exactly where Yellow was at the moment; camping out under a tree somewhere, Blue guessed. She'd been born a nature girl, and probably always would be.

This time Blue was lounging out front in a lawn chair. She'd vacated the roof after the aforementioned incident nearly knocked her off of it. Her eyes still held the same far-off look that pierced through the clouds to the sky beyond.

"They're fine, you know."

She looked up as Crystal placed a glass of lemonade on the table next to her. "I know that."

"Worried?"

"Nah, the only things out there that can hurt those two is themselves," Blue replied, taking a swig of the drink.

"Then what's the problem?"

"It's just…with all the catalysts gone, it's rather boring, isn't it?"

Crystal raised her hands in mock defeat. "Okay, maybe you're right. So what are you going to do about it?"

"Hmm…" Blue thought for a moment before her eyes lit up.

Crystal cut her off before she could speak. "Uh-uh, I'm going with you."

"Oh?" Blue leered at her. "Are _you_ worried?"

"Yes, about all of you. You're all way too reckless…" Crystal answered with an exasperated sigh.

"Well then, it's a good thing we have such a serious person to watch over us, hm?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," Blue replied in a lyrical tone. "You balance well." Crystal stared blankly at her. "Oh, you don't know yet?" she asked with a giggle. "This should be fun…"

"Anyway, I'll need to let the Professor know where we're going…maybe some extra supplies…I hope he doesn't mind too much…" Crystal wandered off toward the lab, rattling off a to-do list of sorts.

"Hurry up," Blue called after her. "We're leaving immediately!"

Crystal turned on the spot. "What, right now?"

_Dreaming of you tonight  
Dreaming of our love  
Wishing I were somewhere else  
My life without you's tough  
Getting hard to remember  
Those little things you do  
Try hard to remember  
Time will see us through_

Sunsets on a mountaintop far exceeded those in cities, Red concluded. He stared off toward the orange sphere in the west, Pika perched on his head. The sun glowed so brilliantly here that he almost expected Ho-oh to come flying out of it. It wasn't entirely impossible.

"Got an eye for these things, don't you?" Gold asked, walking up beside him. "That's good, she'll appreciate that."

Red shot him another glare. "Why is everything about-"

"Because it's fun," Gold interrupted with a cheeky grin. "Everyone knows anyway."

Red opted to whack him upside the head in lieu of a verbal retort. "Maybe, but I…_we_ know something you don't." Gold shot him a quizzical look. "Exactly."

"Whatever. I'm going to bed before the freeze sets in." He drew a heart in the snow with his cue and chuckled before heading for the cave. Red followed with a sigh.

Explotaro had started a new fire by the time they got there. The Pokémon was certainly a lifesaver in this climate, although it had nearly fried their camping gear in excitement the first time. Pika and Pichu both plopped down next to the flames and started snoring immediately. Gold had just enough sense to find a path to his sleeping bag before collapsing on top of it. Red just grinned at him, well used to the complaints he'd endure again in the morning. He crawled into his own bag, placing his trademark cap above the pillow. It was a good thing he'd grabbed Aerodactyl on the way since Gold had originally dragged him off with no gear whatsoever.

Red sighed again and buried his face in his pillow. He dozed off to thoughts of a black dress and a mischievous smile.

_Hold on  
My love  
Hold on till the end of this  
Hold on  
My love  
Hold on till the end of this  
Hold on_

Recently Gold had taken to rising and setting with the sun. This often enabled him to be up before Red, which never seemed to end well for either party. That morning, he'd used Politaro to wake the champion. Red spent the next two hours drying off and plotting revenge. Finally, he finished both warming up and cooling off enough to start training.

"All set then?" Gold called as he exited the cave.

"No thanks to you," Red snapped back.

Sometimes they split up, sometimes they didn't. The training regimen, if it could be called that, varied by the day. They scaled rocks inside and cliffs outside and fought wild Pokémon everywhere, and always wound up back at the peak for a battle or two. The stage was certainly set for one.

"You sure you're ready for this?" Gold asked, a ball in his outstretched hand.

"You haven't beaten me yet, good sir," Red shot back with venomous sarcasm. "Ready when you are."

"Okay…" Gold started, but then his expression lightened. "Not yet." He returned the ball to his pocket.

Red stared at him for a second before he felt a tug on his leg. He looked down to find Pika presenting him with a blue envelope. He quirked an eyebrow at the Pokémon as well before accepting and opening it.

"Look behind you," a soft voice read the letter into his ear. Red jumped and spun around, landing flat on his butt.

"What the…Blue?"

"Who else?" Blue replied through a fit of giggles. "You're still so predictable. Here," she said, offering him a hand.

Red promptly pulled her down into the snow next to him. "Oh really? What happened, did the Professor kick you out for terrorizing people too?"

"It's because you all left that there's nothing to do. So we came to find you."

"We?"

On cue, a resounding "BLUE!" came echoing out of the cave.

Gold's face lit up. "Hey, it's Super Serious Gal!" He signaled the two snowbound trainers to keep quiet ad snuck over to the entrance.

"You really need to stop running off like that," Crystal started, exiting the cave. "I mean, you could-" She was interrupted by a snowball to the face and a gale of laughter. "GOLD!"

She chased the trickster around and around the peak before both vanished into the mountain. The ensuing battle echoed back out into the frigid air for quite a while.

Red stared at the entrance for a moment. "Kinda saw that coming. Now, really," he said, turning back to Blue, "why are you here?"

"Easy, silly," she answered, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Some messages are better delivered in person." Then she kissed him square on the lips. Red blushed profusely before returning the embrace and for just a moment, the winter wind vanished.

Both broke away as Gold came charging back out onto the peak. "A-ha," he grinned triumphantly right before Crystal tackled him to the ground.

"You stupid idiot!" she shrieked, now locked in a rather unbalanced wrestling match with the boy. Red and Blue shared a glance, then sat back and enjoyed the mini-brawl, fingers crossed (with each other's). It lasted another ten minutes until Gold gave up.

_Hold on  
My love  
Hold on till the end of this  
Hold on  
My love  
Hold on till the end of this_

Shortly after the match ended, the wind picked up force again. It grew more powerful as though trying to regain its lost ground earlier, until naught was visible but white.

"Blizzard!" Red shouted through the howls. The group made their way back to the cave in pairs and barely got through before it turned into an absolute whiteout. Snorlax provided an excellent barrier until they could cover the entrance with boulders. All four then sprawled out on the floor.

"What gives?" Blue whined. "It wasn't ike this at all on the way up. How do you guys live here?"

"Don't look at me," Red answered. "It's never been this bad before."

Across the room, Gold raised his hand. "I know what it is," he stated. Everyone turned to look at him. "It's Crys. Her temper is so bad it rubs off on nature."

Crystal, in turn, smacked him again. "You're not helping."

"Yes I am," he shot back. "Explotaro!" Once again, the Typhlosion lit the cavern ablaze, a little stronger now to accommodate the larger crowd. "So now what?"

"I don't know about you guys," Blue said, falling backwards into Red's arms, "but I'm ready to call it a day." Red's face turned a new shade of scarlet.

"Good idea," Gold agreed, and reclined into Crystal's lap. Her face exploded similar to Red's.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Going to sleep, duh. G'night."

"No way," she replied, and promptly threw him off.

"Sorry, Crys." Blue's grin was visible even when her face wasn't. "Looks like we have to share."

"Please tell me you're kidding…"

"Look," Gold chimed in, "if it's that bad, I'll sleep on the floor."

"Chivalrous, but you'd freeze, idiot," Crystal shot back. Then she sighed in defeat. "just promise me you won't snore."

"Scout's honor," Gold answered with a salute. The other three groaned. Coming from Gold, that didn't mean a thing.

"Is that okay with you, sweetie?"Blue asked, tilting her head back to meet her pillow's eyes.

Red's face erupted again. "I…we…um…oh, forget it," he finally said before leaning over to kiss Blue on the nose, earning a giggle in reply. "Do what you want."

"Fantastic then! Good night everyone!" With that, she pulled the sleeping bag over both of them and tried to fall asleep. The other half of the cave prevented that with a solid five minute bickering match, which eventually ended in a compromise: both fell asleep and Gold still had all of his limbs intact.

"…You think they'll figure it out soon?" Blue asked her new bunkmate after a few minutes.

Red was already half asleep. "What?"

"Those two," she said, pointing across the room.

"Mm…maybe."

"You're useless sometimes, you know that?"

"Hey," Red drawled, "don' insult me when I can' defend m'self."

Blue rolled her eyes at him. "I know, when we leave here, we should-"

"Blue."

"What?"

"C'n we shleep now, please?" he pleaded, muffled soundly by the pillow.

"Oh, fine," she huffed, rolling over and lacing her fingers with his. "Sweet dreams then."

Red's wit wasn't dulled by his stupor. "Don' have to," he mumbled, grinning. "You're right here."

This time Blue's face lit up. She kissed her fool on the forehead once more and fell asleep with a content smile. The whole mountain lay fairly silent now. The only sounds came from the crackling fire, the muted howls of the blizzard, and one (loudly) snoring Gold.

_Hold on  
__My love  
__Hold on till the end of this  
Hold on  
My love  
Hold on till the end of this  
Hold on_

For the record, Gold woke up the next morning in a snowdrift.

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**Reviews in any form are greatly appreciated. Really. Thank you for reading!**


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